Be Faithful to the End

[The following is the full manuscript of my sermon delivered on the 7th of February, 2016.  Look for the video on our Vimeo channel, http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Today we get back to our series covering the seven churches of Asia as addressed by name by Jesus in His Revelation to the Apostle John.  When we’ve completed the series, we should have a clearer understanding of what kind of church we are so that we can determine if that is the church we should be, and how to become that church if we find ourselves lacking.

It’s been a few weeks, but when we last looked at the first of those churches, the church in Ephesus, we saw that while they had a lot going for them, they were still missing something.  By all outward appearances, they seemed very successful as a church serving Jesus.  But our Lord said they had lost that fire of first love, that devotion and enthusiasm for truly serving Him and all others.  He told them to repent and get back that loving feeling and they will be rewarded with everlasting life in paradise.  Otherwise…  well, the future didn’t look so good for them.

Let’s look today at the next church Jesus calls out, the church in Smyrna.  Listen and follow along to what the Apostle John recorded as Jesus’ message to this church, in the Book of Revelation chapter 2 verses 8 through 11, and again I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…

8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write,

‘These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life: 9 “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

11 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”’”

--Revelation 2:8-11 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Father God, You fill us with Your Holy Spirit so that He can speak to us and guide us.  Let Him touch our very souls now, Lord, with the message You have for us this day, for we know the time is drawing close when Your Son Jesus will return.  Help us better understand Your will for us, Lord, as individuals and as members of this church family.  In the glorious name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.


Our good brother Boyd Clodfelter told me of a man who really wanted to win the lottery a few weeks back when the jackpot got up so high.  He was deep in debt and had run out of ideas on how to earn more money.  For weeks he prayed to God, “Please, God, I never ask for much.  Please let me win this lottery.”  Each week he didn’t win, and he’d pray again, getting more desperate.  “Please, dear Lord, let me win this lottery.  I really need the money, Lord, but I’ll tithe 10 percent to you when I win.”  Again, nothing, and again he prayed.  “Please, Lord, the payoff is over a billion dollars now!  Please let me win this one!  Please, please, please!!!  I’ll give you half if you just let me win!”  Suddenly, the man heard that still, small voice of God, saying,  “Help me out here.  Buy a ticket.”


Now that, my friends, is faith!  Not only thinking, but expecting that God will give him the lottery winnings without having to buy a ticket!

But aren’t we all kind of like that sometimes?  Don’t we pray to God and plead for things?  Over and over we pray, “Please God make this happen!”  “Please, God, help this person through their tough times!”  “Please, God, help!”  But then we stand by and wait for something to happen.  We almost console ourselves with the surety that all things must happen in God’s timing and not ours.

But what do we do to help God make something happen that we are waiting for?  At what stage do we finally put our pleadings into action?  When do we finally go out and buy that lottery ticket?  James, the brother of Jesus, tells us that faith alone, faith without works, faith without action is dead!  Jesus tells us to keep the faith, but He also intends that we do something with our faith.


Jesus begins His comments to the church in Smyrna by reminding them, and us, that He once was dead but came back to life.  Is that something we have to take on faith, that Jesus came back to life?  Not according to the Apostle Paul, who said this in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verses 4 through 8 after noting that Jesus Christ died for our sins…

4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. 6 After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.

--1 Corinthians 15:4-8 (NLT)

And none of those more than 500 witnesses were ever refuted, not one testimony was questioned.  If we believe in the words of our Bible, then we don’t have to accept Jesus’ resurrection only on faith – we have eye-witness accounts attesting to it.

I’ve been talking about faith a lot so far, even including a form of the word in the title of this message.  Just what is faith?  The author of the Book of Hebrews puts it like this, in chapter 11 verse 1…

1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

--Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)

Each of the letters to the seven churches begins with an instruction by Jesus for John to write to the angel of that given church.  Could this be one of the “things not seen” that the author of Hebrews is speaking of?

Last time I mentioned that each of the seven churches, and every church today, had an angel associated with it, and by this I mean a divine being.  But the word for “angel” in the Greek also means “messenger”.  When John penned the Book of Revelation, he was in exile on the island of Patmos.  He couldn’t leave, but he could receive visitors.  So many of the churches would send folks to visit with John and in that way they could send messages back and forth.  So these seven “angels” could have been messengers from the seven churches that visited John, and that could take these words from Jesus back to them.

The author of Hebrews continues in verse 3 with this clarification of verse 1…

3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

--Hebrews 11:3 (NKJV)

By faith, we know that all the stuff we see was made by things we can’t see – by the spoken word of God.  If we were to continue this reading of Hebrews, we’d see that almost every verse in chapter 11 provides examples of how folks we read of in our Bible acted on their faith, and some of the amazing feats they accomplished because of it.  They put their faith into action, just as James says we must do.

And I believe it’s safe to say that the church in Smyrna also put their faith into action, because Jesus said “I know your works”.  “I know your works”.  They put their faith to work and Jesus recognized it.

But life was not exactly easy for this church family.  Jesus also noted that they suffered through times of tribulation.  And they still had more trials to look forward to in the future.

We’ll get to that in a moment, but first I’d like to look at Jesus’ next comment.  He remarks that He knows the church’s poverty, and then, almost as an aside, He says “but you are rich”.  Isn’t that a contradiction – you’re poor, but you’re rich?

By all accounts, the church in Smyrna was indeed poor, in financial terms.  Remember one of the things we said the early church did?  They’d often sell their personal possessions to help see to the needs of others.  Perhaps, this church family had many needs and had nearly used up what little monetary resources it had available.  Another way to look at this is that Smyrna, being a port city, was quite rich itself, yet the small Christian community within the city was poor in comparison.

But Jesus isn’t talked about financial wealth here.  He means this church family is rich in spirit.  They are spiritually wealthy, because of their great faith and their sacrifices for the needs of others, for serving God.  Money and fat bank accounts and tidy savings are not the mark of a rich and successful church, not in Jesus’ eyes!


Jesus’ next comment may also be a bit confusing.  He speaks of the blasphemy of false-Jews and a synagogue of Satan.  We need to understand that the city of Smyrna was a center of emperor worship.  And being a Roman city, the emperor to be worshiped was Caesar, whichever Caesar happened to be in power at the time.  The Jews that lived there failed to uphold the Law of Moses, serving Rome instead of God.  In this way, they became tools of Satan, doing his work.

And then comes the note about future trials and tribulations, all at the hands of the devil.  The simple truth is that Satan cannot stand to see us serving and worshiping God.  If we are doing right by God, the evil one will attack us without mercy, striving to beat us down enough that we just give up trying anymore.  He wants us to lose our faith and turn away from God.

This is what the church in Smyrna faced because they were doing God’s work, God’s bidding.  Jesus warned that the devil would continue to test them, even have some of them thrown into prison.  But He then promises that if they will just be faithful until the end, that He will give them the crown of life.  If they stay true to God to the end, they will avoid the second death, which is eternity in the lake of fire.


So what did the church in Smyrna do wrong?  We saw where Jesus faulted the church in Ephesus for not keeping their enthusiastic devotion to Christ and to serving God.  But notice that He finds no fault at all with the church family in Smyrna - He has only good things to say about them.

This then, would be another great example for us to follow.  We should continue our good works, serving God by seeing to the needs of His children.  We should face adversity and tribulation gracefully, not complaining or making a big deal out of it.  We should look at those times of being tested by Satan as indications that we are doing right in the eyes of God!  We should be more concerned with building and maintaining spiritual wealth than financial gains.  We should stand firm on the word of God and on being holy in His sight rather than allow ourselves to be swayed by the world and its popular culture.  And we should not be afraid of what is to come, of what might happen next.

Nowhere in our Bible are we promised a bed of roses.  In fact, if we are anything like the church in Smyrna, we can expect bad things to happen, to us and to those we love.  Satan will do his best to test us, just as he did that church so long ago.  But if we hold out, if we keep faithful until death, we will be so richly rewarded by God, we cannot even imagine it.

Be faithful to the end, and receive the crown of life.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, we pray that we might be more like Your Son’s church in ancient Smyrna, the one where He could find no fault.  We long for that crown of life that You hold for us, if we remain faithful to the very end.  Help us be ever faithful to You, Lord, as You are to us.  Help us be faithful and true in the little things so You might trust us with greater tasks and treasures.

Hear us now, Father, as we come to You in the silence, crying out to You from our hearts when mere words aren’t enough…

Dearest Jesus, we want to be just like Your church in Smyrna.  Not in their suffering so much, but in how You could find no fault with them.  This Pilgrim church has suffered many tribulations, too, Lord, yet we also persevere and bear that suffering as gracefully as we know how.  You’ve shown us, Lord Jesus, that financial wealth is nothing if we are spiritually bankrupt.  Help us be spiritually rich, even if we become materially poor.  This we pray in Your beautiful name Lord Jesus, our Master and our Redeemer.  Amen.